


a meeting of heroes

by navaan



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers (2012), Canon Divergence - Iron Man 1, First Meetings, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 11:16:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14810327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Nick Fury comes to see Tony at the end of Iron Man 1 – but he isn't alone.





	a meeting of heroes

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a fill for the Cap-IronMan MCU What If Challenge and my 2018 STONY MCU Bingo card for the space “free STAR space” in the middle of the card.

Jarvis voice got cut off like someone pulled the plug and Tony - just back from the press conference and barrage of questions that had followed his announcement, and still working through the fact that the only father figure he'd had left had tried kill him - was immediately on alert. There _was_ an intruder. But the intruder didn't hide. 

No telling if that was good or bad.

“ _I am Iron Man_ ”, the man standing at the floor to ceiling windows in his living room area cited his words from the press conference with a hint of exasperation. “You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet.”

“Who the hell are you?” Tony asked and watched the man turn around in the darkness, wondered what the hell the world would throw at him next.

The thoughts that raced through his head were all fueled by the sudden adrenaline: _I need to make the suit come to me. I need the suit to be here when I need it. Who the hell is this guy?_

His uninvited guest was a tall African-American in a long dark leather jacket. He looked like a villain right out of a movie. When Tony noticed the eyepatch he froze and the momentary thought that maybe a gang of pirates wanted to take a hit at him next crossed his mind in a flash.

But the man calmly introduced himself: “Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

S.H.I.E.L.D.

Tony could put two and two together. He had heard the clunky agency name “Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division” a couple of times since his return to civilization – and Agent Coulson had done his part saving Pepper and the company today. Until now Tony had never quite figured out what the agency was about exactly.

But the acronym was at least an improvement over the mouthful of a not-saying-much-while-saying-too-much name.

“Huh,” he answered and waited. He'd had about fifteen debriefings, so this was about something else.

“We're here to talk to you about the Avenger initiative.”

“ _We_?” he asked, not sure how he felt about that. “We as in the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division? Spy club? Superheroes United?”

Someone cleared his throat and Tony whirled around. There was a man standing in the half-light far to Fury's right where Tony hadn't noticed him, too focused on Fury. The second man had sat down in an arm chair there and got to his feet now. “We,” he said, “came to talk to you.”

Fury showed Tony a tiny grin, something that could be amusement or something lethal. Tony couldn't get a read on him yet. “I told you. You're not the only superhero in the world, Stark. You'll love this.”

The man stepped towards Fury where the light let the outline of his form take shape. He was a tall, well built man and he held himself like a trained military man. When he finally took his place beside Fury, face calm and neutral, Tony couldn't do much more than stare.

He had seen the face a hundred times before. He had seen the _stance_ a hundred times before. Even the uniform Captain America was wearing – not the one Tony knew from pictures, but something new, updated, enhanced – was something familiar. “You're...”

“Captain America,” the man supplied before Tony could stumble over the words. “It's good to meet you, Iron Man.” He said the last bit with a warm and slightly amused smile.

It was so fascinating that Tony found himself staring at his lips, unable to look away.

“He wanted to meet Howard's son for himself.”

Tony took a step back, frowned. His relationship with his father had never been easy – but his relationship with the Captain America of memory had been no less complicated. At times he'd both adored and resented the hero his father had idolized. Now he was simply awestruck.

“Iron Man,” Cap said and grinned wider. “Actually I wanted to meet Iron Man for myself.”

That was... unexpected. Tony felt light headed suddenly. “You found him? When”

Steve Rogers smiled a terribly poignant smile then, but let Fury talk. 

“Seven weeks ago. When you were still..”

“Captive,” Tony said quickly. 

“Why don't you sit down, so we can talk?” Fury suggested.

Still awestruck and unable to look away from the hero of his childhood days, he moved to the sofa, sat down and said: “Alright, you have my attention. I'm listening.”

* * *

_Two Years Later_

Steve was standing at the floor to ceiling windows looking over New York. The sight still made him marvel sometimes. His home had changed so much, and yet it still felt like he belonged here.

Tony's voice rang out through the speaker. “It should work now. We're off the grid. Can you light her up?” 

Tony had shown him what to do, so it took him only a second to type in the relevant commands. The readings told him that the arc reactor had jumped into action. “Works, Tony.”

“Never doubted it,” Tony said smugly. 

“How does it look?”

“Hmmmm,” Tony said and Steve was back by the window to watch the armor zoom towards the Tower. “Amazing.”

Just then Steve's cell phone rang. He'd gotten so used to all calls being relayed to him by Jarvis that he had nearly forgotten that he carried the S.H.I.E.L.D. phone. “Yes?” 

“Cap,” Fury said without any sort of preamble, “we have a Level 7. We've deployed Natasha to track down Banner. Come in.”

Steve cocked his head to the side and watched Tony reach the landing patch, where machines were already ready to peel him out of the armor. Shame. He'd been ready to celebrate with Tony tonight.

“We'll send Coulson to track down Iron Man.”

“Don't bother,” Steve said and watched Tony walk in with a raised eyebrow. “I'll bring Iron Man.”

“Or Iron Man'll bring you,” Tony mouthed, obviously listening in despite Steve using the supposedly unhackable S.H.I.E.L.D phone. 

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the line when Fury took in the information and probably made mental notes about how surveillance had failed him there, but then just said: “Level 7. Head in the game please.”

“What was that?” Tony asked and Steve walked over to him to peck him on the lips. 

“Fury, Level 7. Time to assemble.”

“And I'd just gotten out of the armor.”

“I know. And I regret having to ask you to put it back on.”

Tony leaned up to kiss him back, firmly, with the dirtiest promise. “Anything for you, Cap.” He sauntered back out. “Maybe you'll get lucky after whatever the hell this is.”

Steve grinned. Quietly he said: “I'm already lucky.” Then he hurried out to let Iron Man take him to the Helicarrier.

There was work to be done for the Avengers.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me for fic updates on [tumblr](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/navaanwrites). This fic has a post on the tumblr [here](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/post/174430943039/a-meeting-of-heroes-navaan-iron-man-movies) in case you want to share it. It also has a page on my [Dreamwidth](https://navaan.dreamwidth.org/603827.html).


End file.
